Will Cancer Prove to be Another Weapon in Israel’s War in Gaza?

The Many Ways Bombs Can Kill

By Joshua Frank, September 4, 2025

Gaza’s Looming Cancer Epidemic

As devastating as the war in Iraq was — and as contaminated as Fallujah remains — it’s nearly impossible to envision what the future holds for those left in Gaza, where the situation is so much worse. If Fallujah teaches us anything, it’s that Israel’s destruction will cause cancer rates to rise significantly, impacting generations to come.

Manufacturing Cancer

The aerial photographs and satellite footage are grisly. Israel’s U.S.-backed military machine has dropped so many bombs that entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble. Gaza, by every measure, is a land of immense suffering. As Palestinian children hang on the brink of starvation, it feels strange to discuss the health effects they might face in the decades ahead, should they be fortunate enough to survive.

A week after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, a large explosion incinerated a parking lot near the busy Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, killing more than 470 people. It was a horrifying, chaotic scene. Burnt clothing was strewn about, scorched vehicles piled atop one another, and charred buildings surrounded the impact zone. Israel claimed the blast was caused by an errant rocket fired by Palestinian extremists, but an investigation by Forensic Architecture later indicated that the missile was most likely launched from Israel, not from inside Gaza.

In those first days of the onslaught, it wasn’t yet clear that wiping out Gaza’s entire healthcare system could conceivably be part of the Israeli plan. After all, it’s well known that purposely bombing or otherwise destroying hospitals violates the Geneva Conventions and is a war crime, so there was still some hope that the explosion at Al-Ahli was accidental. And that, of course, would be the narrative that Israeli authorities would continue to push over the nearly two years of death and misery that followed.

A month into Israel’s Gaza offensive, however, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would raid the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, dismantling its dialysis center with no explanation as to why such life-saving medical equipment would be targeted. (Not even Israel was contending that Hamas was having kidney problems.) Then, in December 2023, Al-Awda Hospital, also in northern Gaza, was hit, while at least one doctor was shot by Israeli snipers stationed outside it. As unnerving as such news stories were, the most gruesome footage released at the time came from Al-Nasr children’s hospital, where infants were found dead and decomposing in an empty ICU ward. Evacuation orders had been given and the medical staff had fled, unable to take the babies with them.

For those monitoring such events, a deadly pattern was beginning to emerge, and Israel’s excuses for its malevolent behavior were already losing credibility.

Shortly after Israel issued warnings to evacuate the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City in mid-January 2024, its troops launched rockets at the building, destroying what remained of its functioning medical equipment. Following that attack, ever more clinics were also targeted by Israeli forces. A Jordan Field Hospital was shelled that January and again this past August. An air strike hit Yafa hospital early in December 2023. The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza was also damaged last May and again this August, when the hospital and an ambulance were struck, killing 20, including five journalists.

While human-rights groups like the International Criminal Court, the United Nations, and the Red Cross have condemned Israel for such attacks, its forces have continued to decimate medical facilities and aid sites. At the same time, Israeli authorities claimed that they were only targeting Hamas command centers and weapons storage facilities.

The Death of Gaza’s Only Cancer Center

In early 2024, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, first hit in October 2023 and shuttered in November of that year, was in the early stages of being demolished by IDF battalions. A video released in February by Middle East Eye showed footage of an elated Israeli soldier sharing a TikTok video of himself driving a bulldozer into that hospital, chuckling as his digger crushed a cinderblock wall. “The hospital accidentally broke,” he said. Evidence of Israel’s crimes was by then accumulating, much of it provided by the IDF itself.

When that Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital opened in 2018, it quickly became Gaza’s leading and most well-equipped cancer treatment facility. As the Covid-19 pandemic reached Gaza in 2020, all oncology operations were transferred to that hospital to free up space at other clinics, making it the only cancer center to serve Gaza’s population of more than two million……………………………………………………………………………..

“The repercussions of the current conflict on cancer care in Gaza will likely be felt for years to come,” according to a November 2023 editorial in the medical journal Cureus. “The immediate challenges of drugs, damaged infrastructure, and reduced access to specialized treatment have long-term consequences on the overall health outcomes of current patients.”

In other words, lack of medical care and worse cancer rates will not only continue to disproportionately affect Gazans compared to Israelis, but conditions will undoubtedly deteriorate significantly more. And such predictions don’t even take into account the fact that war itself causes cancer, painting an even bleaker picture of the medical future for Palestinians in Gaza.

The Case of Fallujah

When the Second Battle of Fallujah, part of America’s nightmarish war in Iraq, ended in December 2004, the embattled city was a toxic warzone, contaminated with munitions, depleted uranium (DU), and poisoned dust from collapsed buildings. Not surprisingly, in the years that followed, cancer rates increased almost exponentially there. Initially, doctors began to notice that more cancers were being diagnosed. Scientific research would soon back up their observations, revealing a startling trend.

In the decade after the fighting had mostly ended, leukemia rates among the local population skyrocketed by a dizzying 2,200%. It was the most significant increase ever recorded after a war, exceeding even Hiroshima’s 660% rise over a more extended period of time. One study later tallied a fourfold increase in all cancers and, for childhood cancers, a twelvefold increase.

The most likely source of many of those cancers was the mixture of DU, building materials, and other leftover munitions. Researchers soon observed that residing inside or near contaminated sites in Fallujah was likely the catalyst for the boom in cancer rates.

“Our research in Fallujah indicated that the majority of families returned to their bombarded homes and lived there, or otherwise rebuilt on top of the contaminated rubble of their old homes,” explained Dr. Mozghan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist who studied the health impacts of war in Fallujah. “When possible, they also used building materials that were salvaged from the bombarded sites. Such common practices will contribute to the public’s continuous exposure to toxic metals years after the bombardment of their area has ended.”

While difficult to quantify, we do have some idea of the amount of munitions and DU that continues to plague that city. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States fired between 170 and 1,700 tons of tank-busting munitions in Iraq, including Fallujah, which might have amounted to as many as 300,000 rounds of DU. While only mildly radioactive, persistent exposure to depleted uranium has a cumulative effect on the human body. The more you’re exposed, the more the radioactive particles build up in your bones, which, in turn, can cause cancers like leukemia.

With its population of 300,000, Fallujah served as a military testing ground for munitions much like those that Gaza endures today. In the short span of one month, from March 19 to April 18, 2003, more than 29,199 bombs were dropped on Iraq, 19,040 of which were precision-guided, along with another 1,276 cluster bombs. The impacts were grave. More than 60 of Fallujah’s 200 mosques were destroyed, and of the city’s 50,000 buildings, more than 10,000 were imploded and 39,000 damaged. Amid such destruction, there was a whole lot of toxic waste. As a March 2025 report from Brown University’s Costs of War Project noted, “We found that the environmental impact of warfighting and the presence of heavy metals are long-lasting and widespread in both human bodies and soil.”

Exposure to heavy metals is distinctly associated with cancer risk. “Prolonged exposure to specific heavy metals has been correlated with the onset of various cancers, including those affecting the skin, lungs, and kidneys,” a 2023 report in Scientific Studies explains. “The gradual buildup of these metals within the body can lead to persistent toxic effects. Even minimal exposure levels can result in their gradual accumulation in tissues, disrupting normal cellular operations and heightening the likelihood of diseases, particularly cancer.”

And it wasn’t just cancer that afflicted the population that stuck around or returned to Fallujah. Infants began to be born with alarming birth defects. A 2010 study found a significant increase in heart ailments among babies there, with rates 13 times higher and nervous system defects 33 times higher than in European births.

“We have all kinds of defects now, ranging from congenital heart disease to severe physical abnormalities, both in numbers you cannot imagine,” Dr Samira Alani, a pediatric specialist at Fallujah General Hospital, who co-authored the birth-defect study, told Al Jazeera in 2013. “We have so many cases of babies with multiple system defects… Multiple abnormalities in one baby. For example, we just had one baby with central nervous system problems, skeletal defects, and heart abnormalities. This is common in Fallujah today.”

While comprehensive health assessments in Iraq are scant, evidence continues to suggest that high cancer rates persist in places like Fallujah. “Fallujah today, among other bombarded cities in Iraq, reports a high rate of cancers,” researchers from the Costs of War Project study report. “These high rates of cancer and birth defects may be attributed to exposure to the remnants of war, as are manifold other similar spikes in, for example, early onset cancers and respiratory diseases.”

Manufacturing Cancer

As current cancer patients die slow deaths with no access to the care they need, future patients, who will acquire cancer thanks to Israel’s genocidal mania, will no doubt meet the same fate unless there is significant intervention.

“[A]pproximately 2,700 [Gazans] in advanced stages of the disease await treatment with no hope or treatment options within the Gaza Strip under an ongoing closure of Gaza’s crossings, and the disruption of emergency medical evacuation mechanisms,” states a May 2025 report by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. “[We hold] Israel fully responsible for the deaths of hundreds of cancer patients and for deliberately obliterating any opportunities of treatment for thousands more by destroying their treatment centers and depriving them of travel. Such acts fall under the crime of genocide ongoing in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel’s methodical destruction in Gaza has taken on many forms, from bombing civilian enclaves and hospitals to withholding food, water, and medical care from those most in need. In due time, Israel will undoubtedly use the cancers it will have created as a means to an end, fully aware that Palestinians there have no way of preparing for the health crises that are coming.

Cancer, in short, will be but another weapon added to Israel’s ever-increasing arsenal.

September 7, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Gaza, health, Israel | Leave a comment

The World Has Failed to Stop Israel. Our Only Choices Now: Leave or Die.

I soon face the possibility of never being able to return to Gaza City.

By Shahad Ali , Truthout, September 5, 2025, https://truthout.org/articles/the-world-has-failed-to-stop-israel-our-only-choices-now-leave-or-die/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=8f0fef14a2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_09_05_06_10_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-78c28ffcdf-650192793

s the Israeli army launches the first phase of its latest military operation in Gaza City — aimed at fully occupying the area and displacing its roughly 1 million residents to the south — the city has descended into unending hell. Night after night, relentless and terrifying explosions rob us of sleep. Entire neighborhoods are being invaded and demolished, forcing families to flee toward an uncertain fate, while bloody massacres have become a grim part of daily life.

For a moment, these cruel scenes harken back to the first months of the war, when Israeli forces, for the first time, compelled residents of the city to flee south under threat of ground invasion. The sky then looked the same as it does now — gray and thick with billowing smoke, signaling imminent danger. The people’s faces reflected the same unbearable anxiety and fear, only now the worry is sharper: We fear that this time we may be forced to leave Gaza City forever, without ever being allowed to return.

The Israeli forces began their operation by intensifying military pressure along multiple axes in the north, east, and south of the city, including neighborhoods such as Al-Zaitoun, Tel al-Hawa, Al-Sabra, and Sheikh Radwan, with the seeming aim of fully encircling the city and confining its residents to a specific area to compel them to move southward.

These neighborhoods have witnessed heavy shelling from artillery and airstrikes, as well as the destruction of entire residential blocks by Israeli robots carrying tons of explosives, in addition to intense gunfire from Israeli tanks and drones. This has caused a large wave of displacement of residents toward the central and western parts of the city, which are already overcrowded and still considered dangerous war zones by the Israeli military. The threat of invasion looms at any moment.

The forced displacement has further exacerbated the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, who are already drained mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially after enduring 23 months of ongoing genocide. Most families in Gaza City had been displaced to the south for more than 15 months and were only able to return during the ceasefire in January 2025. They have not forgotten what it was like to live in tents without basic necessities. They still vividly remember being displaced, bombed, and starved in areas that Israel claimed were safe. Moreover, their longing for their homes and neighborhoods remains unfulfilled.

Many of those families tried to resist by staying in their homes, but this time the Israeli forces have left them with no choice: either be killed or leave — though leaving is almost as dreadful as death. Within the past week, many have evacuated under heavy bombardment, and their focus on mere survival meant they were unable to take even the most basic necessities, such as food, clothes, and mattresses. They were later forced to repurchase these items at exorbitant prices within the informal economy. Those considered “lucky” enough to salvage a few belongings from their homes faced steep transportation costs — up to $150 for a donkey cart and $250 for a vehicle.

Adding to this suffering is the exhausting struggle of homelessness. Most families in Gaza City were forced to venture into the unknown, many ending up in the streets with nowhere to go. A single tent now costs $1,000 — an amount far beyond the reach of most families, as the war has destroyed livelihoods and driven poverty to unbearable levels. Even when a tent is secured, finding space to set it up is another challenge, since the central and western parts of Gaza City are already overcrowded with tents of displaced families from Gaza’s northern governorates, as well as from the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City, following the start of the Israeli military operation Gideon’s Chariots, which was launched in May 2025.

Some families went directly to the south, driven by Israeli army threats and its claims of available space, tents, and aid, only to find the situation even worse. Israeli forces are now taking over two of the largest cities in the south — Khan Younis and Rafah — while people there are crammed into the Central Governorate and al-Mawasi near Khan Younis, with no sufficient space left to set up tents for the displaced from Gaza City.

Abed Abo Laban, 19, said he and his family initially refused to leave their Al-Zaitoun home despite the danger. “The artillery shelling was heavy, and shrapnel scattered across our roof. Quadcopters fired randomly and even burned neighboring tents, but we stayed because we had nowhere else to go,” he said.

Abo Laban recounted that they left only after an Israeli drone targeted their home, killing his brother and father. “We realized that if we hadn’t left, we would all have been killed like them,” he said.

Abo Laban and his family fled south to Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis but found no place to set up their tent. “The Israelis claim there is space in the south, but that is the biggest lie I have ever heard. There was absolutely no space; we just sat on the sand of Al-Mawasi Beach, helpless and exhausted, with nowhere to put our tent,” he said. “The area was cramped, with tents set up right next to each other. There was no privacy, no clean water, no sewage system, and it was infested with insects and flies.”

Mohamed Alkateeb, 46, who lives in the heart of Gaza City, said he has begun packing his belongings, preparing for an evacuation order at any moment. “The thought of leaving my home, fearing I might never return, and venturing into the unknown — without anywhere to go, not even a tent, and with winter approaching — is unbearable. If it were up to me, I would stay; I would prefer death over displacement, which feels like dying slowly. But when you have children, everything changes. I am now forced to leave to protect them as best I can,” he said.

The Israeli army is moving forward with its plan, and it seems nothing can stop it from erasing Gaza City, massacring its people, and displacing us. Now, Israel wants to push us south, but no one knows what the next destination will be. We have pleaded with the world in every way possible — to intervene, to protect us, to recognize our right to live in dignity — but it seems all our efforts have failed. We are left helpless and in despair, awaiting the next chapter of torture and suffering in exile, with no end in sight.

September 6, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Satellite images show construction at site linked to Israel’s suspected nuclear weapons programme

Israel does not confirm or deny having atomic weapons

Jon Gambrell, Independent , Wednesday 03 September 2025

Intensified construction work has been seen at a facility central to Israel’s long-suspected atomic weapons programme, according to satellite images analysed by experts. The development at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona could signify a new reactor or a facility designed for assembling nuclear arms, though the programme’s inherent secrecy makes precise identification difficult.

This activity is set to reignite questions surrounding Israel’s widely believed status as the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state. It also risks drawing international criticism, particularly as it follows joint operations in June where Israel and the United States bombed nuclear sites across Iran, including the heavy water reactor at Arak, amid concerns Tehran could pursue atomic weapons.

Seven experts who examined the images all said they believed the construction was related to Israel’s long-suspected nuclear weapons program, given its proximity to the reactor at Dimona, where no civilian power plant exists. However, they split on what the new construction could be.

Three said the location and size of the area under construction and the fact that it appeared to have multiple floors meant the most likely explanation for the work was the construction of a new heavy water reactor. Such reactors can produce plutonium and another material key to nuclear weapons.

The other four acknowledged it could be a heavy water reactor but also suggested the work could be related to a new facility for assembling nuclear weapons. They declined to be definitive given the construction was still in an early stage……………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-nuclear-shimon-peres-negev-b2818997.html

September 5, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

NFLAs join nuclear test appeal to French and Algerian Governments

On the UN International Day against Nuclear Tests (29 August), the
UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have joined French, Algerian and
global partners in appealing to the French and Algerian Governments for
justice for the victims of French nuclear tests in North Africa.

NFLA 29th Aug 2025 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/nflas-join-nuclear-test-appeal-to-french-and-algerian-governments/

September 5, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

War spending is ever greater

“The military personnel sent to Ukraine would be military personnel from countries that are mostly NATO members. And it is precisely NATO’s expansion in Ukraine that has been one of the main causes of the current conflict.”

Manlio Dinucci, Voltairenet.org, Sat, 30 Aug 2025, https://www.sott.net/article/501617-War-spending-is-ever-greaterhttps://www.sott.net/article/501617-War-spending-is-ever-greater

As US military spending in Ukraine declines, European spending increases. Although it appears that these weapons will be manufactured in the European Union and no longer across the Atlantic,they will inevitably be destroyed in Ukraine.

The war continues to spread to the heart of Europe because it is fundamentally fueled by the very strategy that caused it to explode. After the summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Donald Trump said that, if an agreement were reached between Russia and Ukraine, the United Stateswould not send troops to Ukrainebut, as a “security guarantee,” would provide Kiev with air and intelligence support. Troops, however, would be sent to Ukraine by some European countries.

The US Joint Chiefs of Staff reports that, to finalize this plan, US General Dan Caine summoned the chiefs of staff of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine to the Pentagon. The Kremlin reaffirms that it does not accept this plan. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared:

“The military personnel sent to Ukraine would be military personnel from countries that are mostly NATO members. And it is precisely NATO’s expansion in Ukraine that has been one of the main causes of the current conflict.”

Immediately after, NATO Secretary General Mark Ruttewas dispatched to Kyiv, where, in a press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, he stated:

“Our support for Ukraine is unconditional and continues to grow, including through a flow of lethal US weapons to Ukraine financed by European NATO Allies and Canada. So far, three arms packages, each worth $500 million, have been delivered. The first paid for by the Netherlands; the second by Denmark, Norway, and Sweden; and the third by Germany. More packages will follow.

“Allies support the Ukrainian defense industry, investing in ways that not only strengthen your security, but also your economy. We are working with NATO Command Germany to ensure that your armed forces have what they need today and in the future.”

Immediately after, Canada purchased a fourth “package” of US weapons, bringing the total to $2 billion, which went into the coffers of the largest US war industries.

At the same time, the European Union has allocated €4.05 billion for Ukraine: €3.05 billion from the Ukraine Fund and €1 billion from the “reinvestment of income from Russian fixed assets.“ The EU and its member states have spent a total of €168.9 billion on Ukraine since February 2022. And Ursula Von der Leyen guarantees that “Europe will stand by Ukraine for every single day of the war and for every single day after the war.” These enormous war expenses, made up of public money, are paid directly and indirectly by European citizens through taxes and cuts in social spending.

The latest data released by NATO show that the 32 member countries — as required by the United States — have met the goal of allocating 2 percent of GDP to military spending. In 2014 — the year the Obama administration, with Biden as vice president, carried out the coup in Ukraine that launched the war against Russia — the United States accounted for 73 percent of NATO military spending, compared to Europe’s 27 percent. By 2025, the United States’ share will have fallen to 60 percent, while Europe’s will have risen to 40 percent. As the Trump administration demands — NATO military spending will rise to 3.5 percent and then to 5 percent of GDP, Europe’s share will continue to rise.

Based on the official documentation published by NATO at the end of August 2025, Italian military spending in 2025 will amount to more than 45 billion euros (45,315 billion euros): an average of more than 124 million euros per day. To get an idea of the priorities, just think that this sum deposited in one day for the war is roughly equivalent to the 130 million euros allocated by the Government in 2025 for the “First Home Guarantee Fund”, an important program that allows young people who request it to have a facilitated loan for their purchase.

September 4, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel beginning mass mobilization to take Gaza City – Jerusalem Post

02 Sep 2025 , https://www.sott.net/article/501619-Israel-beginning-mass-mobilization-to-take-Gaza-City-Jerusalem-Post

Tens of thousands of Israeli reservists have begun reporting for duty as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prepares for a new offensive to take full control of Gaza City,The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. Israeli Army Radio said about 40,000 reservists were expected to be called up.

The renewed pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet to speed up the operation reportedly has faced pushback from the military. During a heated cabinet meeting on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir called for a ceasefire deal, warning that the campaign could endanger hostages still held in Gaza and overextend the army, the Post wrote.

According to officials present, the IDF said it cannot begin the operation for at least two months due to logistical and humanitarian concerns, as more time is needed for aid to civilians in Gaza, where starvation has spread.

This follows similar exchanges between Zamir and Netanyahu’s cabinet last month, when the prime minister ordered the military to speed up the timetable for taking what he describes as Hamas’ last bastion.

Some reservists have also voiced frustration with the government’s plan, Reuters reports. Surveys cited by the outlet have shown notable dissatisfaction within the ranks, with some citing the lack of a clear strategy for victory. “I don’t feel like I’m doing anything that really applies significant pressure to have Hamas release the hostages,” one combat reservist told Reuters, speaking anonymously.

Israel launched the latest Gaza City operation last month, targeting Hamas command centers, weapons caches, and tunnel networks embedded in civilian areas. Over 1,000 buildings have been demolished, which has left hundreds trapped under rubble and thousands without homes, according to the Palestinian authorities.

Israel has said the operation is necessary for national security, and that the goal is to eliminate Hamas infrastructure.

The conflict began on October 7, 2023, after the militant group led an attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. Around 50 remain in captivity. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 62,000 people have been killed and about 156,000 wounded in Israeli strikes since then.

Comment: Obsession is ‘Never Enough’:

More than 1,000 buildings have been destroyed in Gaza City’s Zaytoun and Sabra neighborhoods since Israeli forces began a new ground incursion this month, Al Jazeera has reported, citing Palestinian Civil Defence.

In a statement on Sunday, Civil Defence reported that continued shelling and blocked access routes have made it nearly impossible for emergency crews to reach hundreds of trapped civilians or respond to reports of missing persons. Hospitals in the area are reportedly overwhelmed.

“There are grave concerns about the continued incursion of Israeli forces into Gaza City, at a time when field crews lack the capacity to deal with the intensity of the ongoing Israeli attacks.”

Israeli tanks have reportedly advanced into Sabra, and heavy bombardment has been reported across the city. Al Jazeera quoted medical sources saying at least 51 people were killed on Sunday, including 27 in Gaza City, and 24 others who were seeking aid.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said eight more people died of hunger on Sunday, bringing the total number of malnutrition-related deaths since the war began to 289, including 115 children.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), warned that famine was now the“last calamity”affecting Gaza.“People are enduring hell in all shapes,” he said, calling for full access for aid groups and international journalists.

The Israeli military announced the start of an operation to take over Gaza City last week, targeting Hamas command centers, weapons caches, and tunnel networks embedded in civilian areas. Zaytoun and Sabra have previously been identified by Israeli officials as strategic zones for the militant group’s activity.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 62,000 people have been killed and around 156,000 wounded in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave.

A global blowback has begun in earnest, the winds of change are upon him. Netanyahu wants to complete his land grab ASAP. Genocide and total destruction…his best shortcuts.

September 4, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Gaza, Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A new arms race in space must be stopped in its tracks .

A new treaty banning all weapons in space is the only way to prevent a future calamity.

August 31, Bruce K. Gagnon, https://www.pressherald.com/2025/08/31/a-new-arms-race-in-space-must-be-stopped-in-its-tracks-opinion/

Bruce K. Gagnon is the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

I read with great interest the recent Associated Press article titled “Hijacked satellites and orbiting space weapons: In the 21st century, space is the new battlefield.” It was full of half-truths and manipulations that we’ve come to expect from the Pentagon and the military industrial complex.

While in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, I read the infamous Pentagon Papers that revealed how our government lied to the public, the Congress and the media to create the support for the war. We witnessed a similar story repeated in 2003 with “shock and awe” in Iraq and supposed weapons of mass destruction.

I’ve been coordinating the Global Network since its founding in 1992 while then living in Florida. In 1997, we obtained a copy of the Space Command’s internal document “Vision for 2020” that declared the U.S. would “control space, dominate space and deny other nations access to space.” Since that time the Pentagon and the aerospace industry have done everything possible to create a new arms race in space that they long ago stated would be “the largest industrial project in human history.”

For more than 30 years, China and Russia have gone to the United Nations proposing a new space treaty called PAROS (Prevention of an Arms Race in Space). At the general assembly, in a vote on the nonbinding resolution, it overwhelmingly passes despite the U.S. and Israel voting “No.” The treaty proposal is then sent to Geneva’s Conference on Disarmament for negotiation. There the U.S. and Israel block the treaty.

The official position of the U.S. (through Democrat and Republican administrations) has been “There are no weapons in space, we don’t need a new treaty.” The Global Network’s position has always been “Close the door to the barn before the horse gets out.” But the U.S. has always intended to be the dominant power in space. That is how wars are created.

China and Russia have steadily responded, telling the U.S. that they will not allow Washington to be the “Master of Space” — a slogan over the doorway at the Space Command HQ in Colorado.

NASA has long predicted that war in space will create the Kessler Syndrome — a cascading field of space debris as satellites are destroyed. The outcome would be that much of the Earth would go dark as so many things in our high-tech civilization are linked to space satellites.

Posted inOp-eds Opinion

A new arms race in space must be stopped in its tracks | Opinion

A new treaty banning all weapons in space is the only way to prevent a future calamity.

Posted August 31

Bruce K. Gagnon

3 min readFont size +Gift Article

Bruce K. Gagnon is the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He lives in Brunswick.

China and Russia have steadily responded, telling the U.S. that they will not allow Washington to be the “Master of Space” — a slogan over the doorway at the Space Command HQ in Colorado.

The Pentagon has a plan, though. Its strategy is to fund a slew of launch providers around the world to, in a short time during a war in space, put into orbit new military mini-satellites to replace those that were destroyed. One such potential launch provider is bluShift Aerospace in Brunswick.

The CEO of bluShift, in answering a question from me, admitted that his corporation was being funded by NASA and the U.S. Space Force to launch mini-satellites in a time of crisis in order to keep China and Russia from filling up the already overly congested Lower Earth Orbit (LEO).

The only way to peace and security in space is via a new treaty to ban all weapons in space. We delay such a move at our own peril.

September 4, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | space travel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear-armed states should come clean after 80 years of nuclear testing harm.

29 August 2025, https://www.icanw.org/nuclear_armed_states_should_come_clean_after_80_years_of_nuclear_testing_harm

Today, the United Nations International Day Against Nuclear Testing, ICAN is calling on the nuclear-armed states that have detonated over 2,000 nuclear devices between them to take full responsibility for the harm they have caused people and the environment.

The first detonation was in New Mexico a few weeks before the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago this month. Between 1945 and 2007, more than 2000 nuclear tests were carried out, across the world in Algeria, Australia, French Polynesia, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and the southwestern United States, as well as Alaska, western China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine.

The majority of these explosions were detonated in what were then colonies and/or regions inhabited by Indigenous peoples or other ethnic communities. The communities involved are engaged in efforts for justice and to prevent any return to nuclear testing.

Nuclear testing left a legacy beyond test site boundaries

Radiation cannot be contained geographically; it respects no country’s border. Fallout patterns are complex and the full humanitarian consequences of the fallout of years of particular atmospheric nuclear testing is not known. Fallout is not comprehensively documented in this resource, although some studies on these impacts may be included. For a detailed study on the fallout of a few French nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific – and French efforts to cover it up – see The Moruroa Files.

Nuclear testing is banned

The first international treaty to completely outlaw nuclear testing, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was adopted in 1996, although the treaty has not yet entered into force. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is the only international treaty in force that prohibits nuclear testing. Other treaties ban types of nuclear testing or nuclear testing in certain regions.

What is being done to help those impacted?

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is the first international treaty to ban all nuclear weapons activities, it also requires states parties to provide assistance for survivors of nuclear weapons use and testing and to begin to remediate contaminated environments in Articles 6 and 7. While the primary responsibility for this implementation rests with affected countries, all countries in a position to do so, should help those countries with this work.

Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW establish a framework of responsibility that offers solidarity and support to affected states parties to address present-day humanitarian and environmental harm from past use and testing. They also serve to place these issues on the agenda of the wider international community, including donors and international organisations. They provide an opportunity for states parties to make a practical difference with and for affected communities.

In some countries where nuclear weapons have been tested there are programs to provide financial or health assistance to survivors or to clean up the environment but none sufficiently address all needs of survivors. Dozens of identified sites around the world remain contaminated by nuclear weapons use, production and testing and there is no one standard for their remediation. Notably there is no widely accepted standard to determine how clean is clean, or how to monitor radiation levels over time. This article in Global Policy reviews existing approaches and looks at what else can be done.

ICAN Calls for states to come clean

ICAN’s Executive Director, Melissa Parke, was in New Mexico last month for the commemorations of the world’s first explosion of a nuclear weapon and to meet communities whose lives were changed forever by the radioactive fallout from the detonation that poisoned their land, air and water. The ‘Trinity Test’ detonated the plutonium bomb design that was used a few weeks later to kill 74,000 people in Nagasaki.

Ms Parke said: “Trinity was followed by more than 2000 nuclear explosions all over the world and the countries responsible – the nuclear-armed states – have never fully acknowledged the catastrophic harm they have caused to people and environments. These countries must stop the cover-up, come clean and provide the support and recognition these communities deserve. The nuclear armed states also need to heed the calls from affected communities for the urgent abolition of nuclear weapons, so that these weapons of total destruction are eliminated before they eliminate us.”

September 4, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, weapons and war | Leave a comment

An Elbit-Bain Consortium is Nightmare Fuel: the UK Government Must Not Award £2bn Contract to These Corporate Horrors

Why are Israel’s largest arms firm and a company mired in a corruption scandal even being considered for training British troops?

ANDREW FEINSTEIN, PAUL HOLDEN and JACK CINAMON, DECLASSIFIED UK.
28 August 2025

Britain’s Ministry of Defence might imminently award a 15 year contract, worth £2.5bn, to a consortium headed by the British subsidiary of the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems and including the US management consultancy firm, Bain and Company.

If successful, Elbit’s consortium would be responsible for training as many as 60,000 members of the UK military.

The consortium seems well-placed to win the contract; it is, in fact, one of only two shortlisted and preferred bidders.

The Ministry of Defence has already given the consortium a £2m contract so that it can develop its proposals further.

This is unacceptable. And it is frankly unbelievable that this consortium is even in the running considering its track record.

Elbit Systems UK is the fully-owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems Limited. Elbit Systems Limited is headquartered in Tel Aviv and is listed on both the Israeli and US stock exchanges.

Elbit is one of the two largest Israeli weapons manufacturers and is central to the IDF’s operations, providing 85% of its drones. Elbit International is also a major contributor to the F-35 fighter jet program, bragging that it plays a ‘critical role’ in the ‘success of the world’s most advanced fighter jet.’

In July 2025, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestine Territories, published an excoriating report setting out corporate complicity in Israel’s “plausibly” genocidal conduct in Gaza – for which she was subsequently sanctioned by Donald Trump.

Her report is clear that Elbit forms a central part of Israel’s military-industrial complex, which has become “the economic backbone of [Israel].”

“Elbit has cooperated closely on Israeli military operations, embedding key staff in the Ministry of Defence,” Albanese points out, further noting that Elbit provides “a critical domestic supply of weaponry.”

Bain

But we’re also deeply concerned about Elbit’s partner, Bain and Company. Bain and Company (not to be confused with the mega hedge fund Bain Capital, which confirmed to us that it is not involved in the Elbit consortium) is a US-based management consultancy firm. …………………………………………………………………….. https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-must-not-award-elbit-a-2-billion-military-deal/

August 31, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Detached Cruelty of Air Power- From Guernica to Gaza Mass Killers Have Been Above It All .

The increasing American reliance on air power rather than combat troops has shifted the concept of what it means to be “at war.”…………… congressional approval was unnecessary since the United States wasn’t actually engaged in military “hostilities” — because no Americans were dying in the process.

By Norman Solomon, August 28, 2025

Killing from the sky has long offered the sort of detachment that warfare on the ground can’t match. Far from its victims, air power remains the height of modernity. And yet, as the monk Thomas Merton concluded in a poem, using the voice of a Nazi commandant, “Do not think yourself better because you burn up friends and enemies with long-range missiles without ever seeing what you have done”

Nine decades have passed since aerial technology first began notably assisting warmakers. Midway through the 1930s, when Benito Mussolini sent Italy’s air force into action during the invasion of Ethiopia, hospitals were among its main targets. Soon afterward, in April 1937, the fascist militaries of Germany and Italy dropped bombs on a Spanish town with a name that quickly became a synonym for the slaughter of civilians: Guernica.

Within weeks, Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica” was on public display, boosting global revulsion at such barbarism. When World War Two began in September 1939, the default assumption was that bombing population centers — terrorizing and killing civilians — was beyond the pale. But during the next several years, such bombing became standard operating procedure.

Dispensed from the air, systematic cruelty only escalated with time. The blitz by Germany’s Luftwaffe took more than 43,500 civilian lives in Britain. As the Allies gained the upper hand, the names of certain cities went into history for their bomb-generated firestorms and then radioactive infernos. In Germany: Hamburg, Cologne, and Dresden. In Japan: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

“Between 300,000-600,000 German civilians and over 200,000 Japanese civilians were killed by allied bombing during the Second World War, most as a result of raids intentionally targeted against civilians themselves,” according to the documentation of scholar Alex J. Bellamy. Contrary to traditional narratives, “the British and American governments were clearly intent on targeting civilians,” but “they refused to admit that this was their purpose and devised elaborate arguments to claim that they were not targeting civilians.”

Past Atrocities Excusing New Ones

As the New York Times reported in October 2023, three weeks into the war in Gaza, “It became evident to U.S. officials that Israeli leaders believed mass civilian casualties were an acceptable price in the military campaign. In private conversations with American counterparts, Israeli officials referred to how the United States and other allied powers resorted to devastating bombings in Germany and Japan during World War II — including the dropping of the two atomic warheads in Hiroshima and Nagasaki — to try to defeat those countries.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Joe Biden much the same thing, while shrugging off concerns about Israel’s merciless killing of civilians in Gaza. “Well,” Biden recalled him saying, “you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.”

Apologists for Israel’s genocide in Gaza have continued to invoke just such a rationale…………………………………………………………………….

The United Nations has reported that women and children account for nearly 70% of the verified deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. The capacity to keep massacring civilians there mainly depends on the Israeli Air Force (well supplied with planes and weaponry by the United States), which proudly declares that “it is often due to the IAF’s aerial superiority and advancement that its squadrons are able to conduct a large portion” of the Israeli military’s “operational activities.”

The “Grace and Panache” of the “Indispensable Nation”

The benefactor making possible Israel’s military prowess, the U.S. government, has compiled a gruesome record of its own in this century. An ominous undertone, foreshadowing the unchecked slaughter to come, could be heard on October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas attack on Israel resulted in close to 1,200 deaths. “This is Israel’s 9/11,” the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations said outside the chambers of the Security Council, while the country’s ambassador to the United States told PBS viewers that “this is, as someone said, our 9/11.”

Loyal to the “war on terror” brand, the American media establishment gave remarkably short shrift to concerns about civilian deaths and suffering. The official pretense was that (of course!) the very latest weaponry meshed with high moral purpose. When the U.S. launched its “shock and awe” air assault on Baghdad to begin the Iraq War in March 2003, “it was a breathtaking display of firepower,” anchor Tom Brokaw told NBC viewers with unintended irony. Another network correspondent reported “a tremendous light show here, just a tremendous light show.”

As the U.S. occupation of Iraq took hold later that year, New York Times correspondent Dexter Filkins (who now covers military matters for The New Yorker) was laudatory on the newspaper’s front page as he reported on the Black Hawk and Apache helicopter gunships flying over Baghdad “with such grace and panache.” Routine reverence for America’s high-tech arsenal of air power has remained in sync with the assumption that, in the hands of Uncle Sam, the world’s greatest aerospace technologies would be used for the greatest good.

In a 2014 commencement speech at West Point, President Barack Obama proclaimed: “The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation. That has been true for the century passed and it will be true for the century to come.”

After launching two major invasions and occupations in this century, the United States was hardly on high moral ground when it condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and frequent bombing of that country’s major cities. Seven months after the invasion began, President Vladimir Putin tried to justify his reckless nuclear threats by alarmingly insisting that the atomic bombings of Japan had established a “precedent.”

Whoever Doesn’t Count Goes Uncounted

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Normal and Lethal

When Shakira and Guljumma lost relatives to bombs that arrived courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer, their loved ones were not even numbers to the Pentagon. Instead, meticulous estimates have come from the Costs of War project at Brown University, which puts “the number of people killed directly in the violence of the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere” at upwards of 905,000 — with 45% of them civilians. “Several times as many more have been killed as a reverberating effect of the wars — because, for example, of water loss, sewage and other infrastructural issues, and war-related disease.”

The increasing American reliance on air power rather than combat troops has shifted the concept of what it means to be “at war.” After three months of leading NATO’s bombing of Libya in 2011, for instance, the U.S. government had already spent $1 billion on the effort, with far more to come. But the Obama administration insisted that congressional approval was unnecessary since the United States wasn’t actually engaged in military “hostilities” — because no Americans were dying in the process.

………………………………………………………………………………….the nation’s actions targeting Libya involved “no U.S. ground presence or, to this point, U.S. casualties.” Nor was there “a threat of significant U.S. casualties.” The idea was that it’s not really a war if Americans are above it all and aren’t dying………………………………………

in a September 2021 speech at the United Nations soon after the last American troops had left Afghanistan, President Biden said: “I stand here today, for the first time in 20 years, with the United States not at war.” In other words, American troops weren’t dying in noticeable numbers. Costs of War project co-director Catherine Lutz pointed out in the same month that U.S. engagement in military actions “continues in over 80 countries.”

…………………the Biden and Trump administrations have directly sent bombers and missiles over quite a few horizons, including in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Iran.

Less directly, but with horrific ongoing consequences, stepped-up U.S. military aid to Israel has enabled its air power to systematically kill Palestinian children, women, and men with the kind of industrial efficiency that fascist leaders of the 1930s and 1940s might have admired. The daily horrors in Gaza still echo the day when bombs fell on Guernica. But the scale of the carnage is much bigger and unrelenting in Gaza, where atrocities continue without letup, while the world looks on. https://tomdispatch.com/from-guernica-to-gaza/

August 30, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Entire UN Security Council Except US Says Gaza Famine ‘Man-Made’ as 10 More People Starve to Death

While acknowledging that “hunger is a real issue in Gaza,” the US ambassador to the UN repeated a debunked claim that the world’s leading authority on starvation lowered its standards to declare a famine.

Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, Aug 27, 2025

Every member nation of the United Nations Security Council except the United States on Wednesday affirmed that Israel’s engineered famine in Gaza is “man-made” as 10 more Palestinians died of starvation amid what UN experts warned is a worsening crisis.

Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members issued a joint statement calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and lifting of all Israeli restrictions on aid delivery into the embattled strip, where hundreds of Palestinians have died from starvation and hundreds of thousands more are starving.

“Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately,” they said. “Time is of the essence. The humanitarian emergency must be addressed without delay and Israel must reverse course.”

“This is a man-made crisis,” the statement stresses. “The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law.”

Israel, which is facing a genocide case at the UN’s International Court of Justice, denies the existence of famine in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Court of Justice for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation.

The 14 countries issuing the joint statement are: Algeria, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, and the United Kingdom.

While acknowledging that “hunger is a real issue in Gaza and that there are significant humanitarian needs which must be met,” US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea rejected the resolution and the IPC’s findings…………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.commondreams.org/news/un-security-council-gaza-famine

August 30, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Unaudited Power: The Military Budget That Nobody Controls

August 26, 2025 By Ellen Brown ScheerPost, https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/26/ellen-brown-unaudited-power-the-military-budget-nobody-controls/

The U.S. federal debt has now passed $37 trillion and is growing at the rate of $1 trillion every five months. Interest on the debt exceeds $1 trillion annually, second only to Social Security in the federal budget. The military outlay is also close to $1 trillion, consuming nearly half of the discretionary budget.

As a sovereign nation, the United States could avoid debt altogether by simply paying for the budget deficit with Treasury-issued “Greenbacks,” as Abraham Lincoln’s government did. But I have written on that before (see here and here), so this article will focus on that other elephant in the room, the Department of Defense.

Under the Constitution, the military budget should not be paid at all, because the Pentagon has never passed an audit. Expenditures of public funds without a public accounting violate Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7of the Constitution, which provides:

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

The Pentagon failed its seventh financial audit in 2024, with 63% of its $4.1 trillion in assets—approximately $2.58 trillion—untracked. From 1998 to 2015, it failed to account for $21 trillion in spending.

As concerning today as the financial burden is the wielding of secret power. Pres. Dwight Eisenhower warned in his 1961 farewell address, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Pres. John F. Kennedy echoed that concern, warning in 1961 that “secret societies” and excessive secrecy are “repugnant in a free and open society,” threatening democracy by withholding truth from the public. He warned that excessive concealment, even for national security, undermines democracy by denying citizens the facts needed to hold power accountable. “No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed,” he said. If untracked billions fund classified programs, citizens are left powerless, governed by a shadow entity answerable to no one.

Those concerns persist today. On Aug. 13, 2025, Joe Rogan interviewed U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who leads a House Oversight Committee focused on government transparency regarding various topics, including UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, formerly UFOs). Luna said the committee had been formed after she and two other congressmen were denied access at Eglin Air Force Base to information on UAPs provided by whistleblowers. The problem, she said, was that Congress was supposed to represent the public and be an investigative body for it, “and you have unelected people operating basically in secrecy. … I think this goes all the way back even to JFK, with how they basically have operated outside of the purview of Congress and basically… have gone rogue ….”

A Behemoth Without Oversight

The Department of Defense’s $885.7 billion budget for 2025, approved by the House of Representatives, dwarfs the military spending of China ($296 billion), Russia ($84 billion), and the next eight nations combined. Managing $4.1 trillion in assets—from aircraft carriers to secret drones—along with $4.3 trillion in liabilities (e.g. personnel costs and pensions), the federal government’s largest agency oversees a military empire spanning over 4,790 sites worldwide. Yet it operates with minimal oversight.

The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 mandated audits for all federal agencies, but the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018 delayed the Pentagon’s first department-wide audit to 2018 due to its unwieldy size, its decentralized systems, and its outdated software. The DOD has failed every audit since that time. In 2024, it could not account for its $824 billion FY 2024 budget, with 2,500 new audit issues identified. Of 24 reporting entities, only nine received clean opinions, while 15 received disclaimers due to insufficient data. In fact the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has flagged DoD financial management as high-risk for waste, fraud, and abuse ever since 1995.

As observed in a January 2019 article in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi, openly secret budgets were first legalized in 1949 with the passage of the Central Intelligence Agency Act, which exempted that newly created agency from public financial disclosure. The Act stated, “The sums made available to the Agency may be expended without regard to the provisions of law and regulations related to the expenditure of Government funds.”

The aim of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 was to curb billions of dollars said to be lost each year through fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of public budgets. Despite the mandated audits for all federal agencies, the DoD – the only major agency without a clean audit – has received $3.9 trillion in congressionally approved funding since 2018. “Every year that members of Congress vote to boost Pentagon spending with no strings attached,” observed federal budgeting expert Lindsay Kosgharian, “they choose to spend untold billions on weapons and war with no accountability.”

The Audit the Pentagon Act of 2023, backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Grassley, proposes docking 0.5–1% of budgets for audit failures, but the measure has not received a vote.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), launched with promises to strip waste, fraud, and abuse from federal agencies, has conspicuously sidestepped the Pentagon. A June 2025 article titled “Why DOGE Was Always Doomed: The Pentagon Problem,” points out that the DOGE mission was seriously hampered by the Pentagon’s exemption from auditing:

In FY 2024, total discretionary spending was about $1.6 trillion. Of that, the Pentagon alone received $842 billion. In other words, it got more funding than all other departments combined. You read that right: one (very special) department received more than all the rest put together.

Funds that are not accounted for divert resources from critical needs like troop readiness, healthcare, and infrastructure. Overbilling by contractors enriches corporations while taxpayers foot the bill. And the lack of transparency erodes public confidence, as Americans struggle with domestic priorities.

The Missing $21 Trillion: Fraud, Waste or Something Worse?

The Pentagon’s audit failures mask not just inefficiency and waste but pervasive fraud and corruption. Between 1998 and 2015, Inspector General reports show that the DoD could not account for $21 trillion in spending—65% of federal spending during that period. For perspective, the entire U.S. GDP in 2015 was $18.2 trillion. In 2023, the agency failed to document 63% of its $3.8 trillion in assets, up from 61% the prior year. A 2015 DoD report identifying $125 billion in administrative waste was suppressed to protect budget increases.

There is plenty of verified waste to support the case for mismanagement. Military contractors, who receive over half of the Pentagon’s budget, are a major culprit. The F-35 program, managed by Lockheed Martin, was reported in 2021 to be $165 billion over budget, with $220 billion in spare parts poorly tracked. A 2023 CBS News investigation found that contractors routinely overcharged by 40–50%, with some markups reaching 4,451%. A 2016 report in the Nation highlighted $640 for a toilet seat and $7,600 for a coffee pot.

It is no longer even necessary to cover up fraud and corruption by wildly inflated prices. In 2017, former HUD official Catherine Austin Fitts collaborated with Mark Skidmore, an economics professor at Michigan State University, to document the missing $21 trillion in unsupported journal voucher adjustments at the DoD and HUD. In a June 2025 article published in Fitts’ journal The Solari Report titled “Should We Care about Secrecy in Financial Reporting?,” Dr. Skidmore discussed how the government responded to the publication of his research with Fitts. Its response was to immediately eliminate the paper trail leading to its covert financial operations. In particular, “Pentagon officials turned to the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) for advice. Several months later, FASAB posted a new document (FASAB 56), which recommended that the government be allowed to misstate and move funds to conceal expenditures if it is deemed necessary to protect national security interests.”

Fitts remarked, “The White House and Congress just opened a pipeline into the back of the US Treasury, and announced to every private army, mercenary and thug in the world that we are open for business.”

Speculation Run Rampant

In a widely-viewed interview by Tucker Carlson on April 28, 2025, Fitts expressed her belief that the missing trillions had been funneled into classified projects involving advanced technologies, including massive underground bunkers to protect elites from a “near-extinction event;” and that they were using advanced energy systems and hidden transit networks possibly linked to extraterrestrial tech. She discussed “interdimensional intelligence” and a secret space program linked to a “breakaway civilization.” The latter term was coined by UFO researcher Richard Dolan and is defined by Google as “a theoretical, hidden society that operates outside of mainstream civilization with advanced technology, often linked to UFO phenomena and secret space programs.”

In a Danny Jones interview in May 2025, Fitts alluded to Deep Underground Military Bases (“DUMBs”), perhaps used for “advanced technology or off-world operations.” Existence of these bases was confirmed two decades earlier by whistleblower Philip Schneider, a U.S. government geologist and engineer involved in their construction. In his last presentation in 1995, Schneider said there were 131 of these cities connected underground by mag-lev rail, built at a cost of $17-26 billion each. According to his biographer, Schneider was assassinated in 1996 by a U.S. intelligence agency for disclosing the government cover-up of UFOs and aliens.

Too over the top? Perhaps, but the Pentagon is so secretive that the public is left to speculate. Are we dealing with a scenario like that in such Hollywood movies as the 1997 film Men in Black, in which hidden forces—human or alien—control our fate?

The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) contends that no verifiable evidence supports extraterrestrial activity. But other prominent figures support the UFO/UAP narrative. In 2017, the New York Times exposed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), said to be a $22 million DoD initiative run by Luis Elizondo investigating UAPs from 2007–2012.

According to BBC News, Haim Eshed, former head of Israel’s space security program, claimed in a 2020 interview with the Yediot Aharonot newspaper that the U.S. government has an “agreement” with a “Galactic Federation” of extraterrestrials. He alleged aliens have been in contact with the U.S. and Israel, with secret underground bases where they collaborate on experiments. Eshed claimed the United States was on the verge of disclosing this under President Trump but withheld it to avoid “mass hysteria.” The claims were unverified but provocative.

In recent years, Congress has increased its focus on UAPs, with high-profile hearings in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2023, whistleblower David Grusch, a former intelligence officer, testified that the U.S. possesses “non-human origin” craft and “dead pilots,” based on classified briefings. On November 13, 2024, the House Oversight Committee’s hearing, “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth,” featured testimony from Luis Elizondo, retired Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, journalist Michael Shellenberger, and former NASA official Michael Gold, who claimed the U.S. possesses UAP technologies and has harmed personnel in secret retrieval programs. Shellenberger alleged that a covert “Immaculate Constellation” program hides UAP data from Congress.

Some lawmakers, including Rep. Luna and Rep. Tim Burchett, continue to criticize Pentagon secrecy and to push for transparency. In May 2024, Burchett introduced the UAP Transparency Act, requiring the declassification of all UAP-related documents within 270 days. He stated:

This bill isn’t all about finding little green men or flying saucers, it’s about forcing the Pentagon and federal agencies to be transparent with the American people. I’m sick of hearing bureaucrats telling me these things don’t exist while we’ve spent millions of taxpayer dollars on studying them for decades.

Secrecy Undermines Democracy

With $21 trillion unaccounted for historically, $165 billion in F-35 overruns, and $125 billion in buried waste, the DoD’s financial mismanagement needs urgent reform. Congress is primarily responsible for overseeing the DoD budget, exercising its constitutional “power of the purse” under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. So why isn’t it enforcing this mandate?

The chief excuse given is the need for secrecy for security reasons, but a congressional committee could be given access to the Pentagon’s financial data in closed session in order to exercise public oversight and enforce accountability. Other factors are obviously at play, including political influence, lobbying, campaign contributions from the defense sector, and a lack of penalties for noncompliance.

To restore accountability, Congress needs to enforce the Audit the Pentagon Act, modernize DoD systems, and investigate contractors profiting from lax oversight. UAP transparency is also critical, whether to debunk myths or uncover truths.

As taxpayers footing the bill, we are entitled to know not only where our money is being spent but who is really in charge of our government. The Pentagon’s secrecy and lack of accountability could be shielding anything from contractor fraud to UAP programs and alien alliances. If there is information so secret that even our elected representatives don’t have access to it, who does have access? Is there a secret government above the government we know? Without fiscal transparency and accountability, we can no longer call ourselves a democracy, as JFK warned.

August 28, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Biggest nuclear tests in history: Tsar Bomba, Castle Bravo and their global impact

Edited By Kushal Deb : Aug 25, 2025, https://www.wionews.com/photos/biggest-nuclear-tests-tsar-bomba-castle-bravo-global-impact-1756122889360/1756122889362

Tsar Bomba

Tsar Bomba is the most powerful nuclear test in the history of nuclear weapons. A Soviet Tu-95 bomber dropped it from 13,000 feet, accompanied by a parachute, in Novaya Zemlya, a remote archipelago in the northern fringes of the U.S.S.R., on October 30, 1961, at around 11.32 am in Moscow time. Yielding nearly 50 megatons, it produced mushroom clouds over 40 miles high and 25 miles from end to end and equivalent to the explosion of 57 million tons of TNT. Houses within a 20km radius were completely destroyed. A 5-5.5 magnitude seismic event was felt across the world. The explosion’s shockwave circled the Earth three times and broke windows as far as 1,000 km away.

The Soviet Union was condemned unanimously by Great Britain, Sweden, and the United States. Glaciers around Novaya Zemlya were found with elevated levels of radiation because of the blast. In the following years Soviet Union and the United States signed several treaties, namely the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), to restrict the development of nuclear weapons. It banned nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater; only underground testing was allowed. Several other treaties followed, like the Outer Space Treaty (1967) prohibited placing nuclear weapons in orbit or testing them in space, Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (1967), establishing Latin America as a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Castle Bravo

The US tested its first dry Thermonuclear device on March 1, 1954, in the Marshal Islands. Castle Bravo, with a 15 megaton yield, had produced a mushroom cloud that grew to nearly four-and-a-half miles wide and reached a height of 130,000 feet six minutes after the detonation.

Scientists have terribly miscalculated its capacity, intended to be a 5–6 megaton detonation, following the impact, radioactive fallout contaminated surrounding islands, exposing locals and U.S. personnel to dangerous radiation levels. An estimation states that 665 inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were overexposed to radiation. The fallout spread over 7,000 square miles. Europe, Australia, India, and Japan all found traces of radioactive material, starting a widespread outcry for a Nuclear Testing ban.

Castle Yanke

It was tested on May 5, 1954, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It was part of the Castle series tests, of which Ivy Mike and Castle Romeo were a part. Yanke contributed a yield of approximately 13–13.5 megatons, vaporised the test island, and generated a mushroom cloud affectionately estimated at 43 km in height. Although the yield of Castle Yankee was smaller than Castle Bravo, it still contributed to radioactive fallout in the nearby areas around the atoll.

Castle Romeo

Castle Romeo was tested by the US on March 26, 1954, just after the test of Castle Bravo. It yielded 11 megatons of TNT after the explosion, and the extreme red, orange, and yellow hues cloud became a popular representation of the nuclear explosion in the media. This thermonuclear test caused extensive radioactive contamination in the Pacific.

Ivy Mike

Ivy Mike was the world’s first successful hydrogen bomb test. The test marked a shift from fission-based weapons to fusion technology. It also pushed the Soviet Union to accelerate its thermonuclear program. It was also detonated in the Marshal Islands on November 1, 1952. The explosion produced 10.4 megatons of TNT. It spread across 1.8 to 3.2 miles and rose above 25 miles.

August 27, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Report: Smotrich Told IDF Chief That Anyone Who Doesn’t Evacuate Gaza City Can ‘Die of Hunger or Surrender’

Israel’s Channel 12 also reported that Netanyahu has said he has Trump’s full support for the planned offensive to take over Gaza City but has limited time

by Dave DeCamp | August 24, 2025, https://news.antiwar.com/2025/08/24/report-smotrich-told-idf-chief-that-anyone-who-doesnt-evacuate-gaza-city-can-die-of-hunger-or-surrender/

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has told the head of the Israeli military that anyone who remains in Gaza City after an IDF evacuation order can “die of hunger or surrender,” The Times of Israel reported on Saturday, citing a TV report from Israel’s Channel 12.

“We ordered you [to carry out] a quick operation. In my opinion, you can besiege them,” Smotrich reportedly told IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. “Whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them. No water, no electricity, they can die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want and your capable [of doing it].”

The Channel 12 report said that during the same meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said that President Trump fully supports Israe’s plans to conquer Gaza City, which involves the forced displacement of over 1 million civilians amid a famine in the area, but that the US president wants a quick and decisive operation.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City amid ramped-up Israeli attacks in the area, but there’s been no sign of a mass evacuation despite Israel’s orders to leave. Palestinians in Gaza City have rejected the idea of another displacement since most of them have been forced to move many times, and they don’t believe the area they’re being told to flee to will be much safer since the IDF continues to bomb the south.

The Palestinians in Gaza City are also likely aware that Israel’s plans involve the complete destruction of the city, which means they almost certainly won’t be able to return. The IDF has told the Israeli government that it will likely take months or possibly over a year to demolish the city.

The Channel 12 report said that Zamir clashed with Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over the length of time the plan to take over Gaza City will take. Smotrich’s call to starve the remaining Palestinians to death aligns with previous comments he has made.

In April of this year, about a month after Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza, Smotrich said Israel wouldn’t allow a “grain of wheat” to enter the Strip. Last year, Smotrich said at a conference that it may be “justified and moral” for Israel to starve two million Palestinians to death, but that the world wouldn’t allow it to happen.

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” Smotrich said in August 2024. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”

August 27, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Eighteen Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza Over Three Days Due to Israeli Siege

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has confirmed that famine is taking place in Gaza City.

by Dave DeCamp | August 24, 2025, https://news.antiwar.com/2025/08/24/eighteen-palestinians-starve-to-death-in-gaza-over-three-days-due-to-israeli-siege/

Gaza hospitals have recorded 18 more malnutrition deaths in Gaza over the past three days, according to press releases from Gaza’s Health Ministry, as Palestinians continue to starve due to the US-backed Israeli siege.

In its latest release on Sunday, the Health Ministry said at least eight Palestinians, including one child, had starved to death over the previous 24-hour period. “This brings the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition to 289, including 115 children,” the ministry said.

On Friday, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed that famine was taking place in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City and nearby towns, and that more than 500,000 people in the area were facing “catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death.”

The IPC said that conditions are expected to worsen and that between mid-August and the end of September, famine is expected spread to Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, and Khan Younis in the south.

The Israeli government and its supporters are denying that famine is occurring, pointing to the fact that many children suffering from severe malnutrition had pre-existing medical conditions. But the most vulnerable are always the first to be impacted when famine sets in, and there have been many cases recorded of people suffering from severe malnutrition who have no pre-existing conditions.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a report on August 21 based on virtual tours of hospitals and health centers in Gaza that examined the cases of 27 children and found that 17 of them “deteriorated into a state of severe malnutrition without preexisting health conditions” while 10 suffered from previous illnesses.

“Based on our conversations, a simple fact emerged: Anyone who claims that the images of starvation in the Strip are a result of acute genetic or other diseases, and not due to a grave shortage of food, are lying to themselves,” the report said.

The IPC said that in order to prevent further catastrophe, there must be an immediate ceasefire and the lifting of all restrictions on aid entering Gaza. But Israel is planning a major escalation to take over Gaza City, and President Trump, who has the power to stop the genocidal war by cutting off weapons shipments to Israel, has signaled he’ll back whatever the Israeli government chooses to do.

August 27, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

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